Immortal Duty

by J. K. Coi

  With one last look up at the window, Rhys hopped on his Harley and headed for the warehouse.

  He drove like Baron—dangerous. Weaving in and out of traffic at excessive speeds, with little regard for his own personal safety. He had enough time before the others were due to arrive that he went straight to the gym and pushed lead until his muscles screamed, then pushed some more. Only when he was utterly exhausted, had worked every scrap of emotion out of his system, did he feel like himself again. After a quick shower and change of clothes, he was ready to meet with Kane and Roland.

  Kane, Roland and Baron were waiting for him in the garage. Baron must have just gotten back in, because he was still covered in grime. Rhys groaned inwardly. He’d have to talk to Baron again about going out on patrol alone, but he wouldn’t do it in front of the twins.

  There was blood on Baron’s clothes, but apparently he didn’t think bleeding to death constituted a valid reason not to drool all over Roland’s pimped-out jet-black Ferrari.

  “Fuck me, you rich corporate bastard. This ride is loaded.”

  “Yeah, and expensive. So get your grubby fingers off it,” Roland said good-naturedly. He looked up at Rhys. “Your boy here always so disrespectful to his elders?”

  “Yeah, but I’m beating it out of him slowly. Baron, why don’t you hit the showers and then come meet us out back?” Rhys said.

  “Sure thing, boss. Later, guys. Nice to meet you.”

  “And make sure you take care of the damage first,” Rhys added with a pointed stare at the blood on Baron’s sleeve.

  “What? Oh, this?” Baron said, swiping dismissively at his arm. “It’s nothing.”

  “Just get it fixed up.”

  “Should be right as rain again in an hour.” Baron grinned and shot off a mock salute before turning to head inside. Baron’s level of respect had improved drastically since their first meeting. The kid was still hard-headed and as stubborn as hell, but he recognized Rhys’ skill and experience and did his best to follow instructions. He was eager to learn, and that was what had surprised Rhys the most.

  Rhys still wished Baron wouldn’t call him “boss”. He turned back to the others. “You find anything out about the demon?”

  “We’ve been looking into it, but so far there’s no telling where it went after killing Duncan,” Roland said. “Kane here has got a hunch that this particular demon is a jumper, that it has access to the portals. We think it probably resides in the demon realms and is traveling back and forth.”

  “Then it must be one of Mastema’s underlings,” Rhys said.

  “It would seem so.”

  “I’d begun to suspect the same thing. If it was earthbound, we’d already be battling a horde of infected blood suckers.”

  “You’re right.” Roland nodded. “I’ve had no information that any civilians have turned.”

  “We’ll have to figure out how to draw it back here,” Kane said. “And hope we don’t get any humans killed in the process.”

  “Keep on it.” Rhys changed the subject. “Did you have any luck getting in touch with Doyle?”

  “No, but I managed to speak with one of his human contacts. She placed him somewhere on the outskirts of town a few days ago. The old fart still refuses to join the twenty-first century and get a cell phone.” Kane shook his head. “So no luck. I’ll keep the word out, though, and when he hears you want to talk to him, he’ll find you.”

  “Fine. We’ll just wait until—” The security system pinged. Rhys walked to a console in the wall and checked the screen before entering the code to lift the garage doors. Alric drove his motorbike inside. He pulled up next to Rhys and gunned the engine loudly.

  “Hey, ladies, am I late to the party?” Alric hopped off the bike and clapped Rhys on the shoulder, then shook hands with Kane and Roland. The man was monstrous, built like a grizzly and just as mean when he wanted to be. His arms were the size of tree trunks and his face was covered in hair. Yet despite his fearsome size, he smiled often.

  In fact, Alric was the most cheerful Immortal Rhys had ever come across, although he hadn’t always been that way. The Immortal had been through a lot, and was probably only sane because of his wife, Diana. He’d once confessed that the day she died—because she was only human—would be the day he said goodbye to his own Immortality.

  Rhys understood Alric’s need to try to find some happiness, especially after what he’d been through. But marriage was an illusion of normalcy that Rhys would never indulge in. It couldn’t really exist for people like him. He’d tried it once upon a time. It had ended violently. Fire. Blood. Death. Those memories hid in the darkest, most closed part of his mind and he didn’t relive them, ever, except to hold them up as lessons learned.

  “Alric, glad you made it. You have any luck on patrol tonight?”

  “I did. I bagged a nasty bugger. There’s one unlucky demon who’s going to be hell’s bitch for another hundred years or so.”

  “Good. Then why don’t we get down to business?”

  Chapter Seven

  Rhys stood within the line of trees at the entrance to the hospital. This was becoming a disturbing habit he had to break.

  It was late—he should have been patrolling—but instead he waited in the shadows for Amy, knowing she was supposed to be finished with work soon. He’d followed her earlier today and had returned to make sure she got back home safely.

  This was a complete waste of his time, he knew it, not to mention illogical and intrusive to Amy. Despite all that, he couldn’t shake his gut instinct that something was coming. Until he could be sure he was wrong, he wouldn’t abandon her.

  If only it was that simple.

  If the only thing motivating him was a protective instinct, he probably wouldn’t be so fucking disgusted with himself. But he was drawn to this woman in a way that had nothing to do with his oath to protect humans, or his disturbing dreams, and everything to do with the strangely tender feelings that she evoked in the haunted depths of his scarred soul. Everything in him cried out for her…a taste…a touch.

  His brain fought the connection, but the rest of him already knew it was no use. Maybe when he stopped seeing her frightened eyes in his mind he would be able to stay out of her life, but even then he somehow thought that a part of her would always be somewhere inside of him.

  He didn’t stand a chance.

  There she was, standing in the entrance of the building. The street lamps shone down on her, bringing out fiery red highlights in her dark hair and emphasizing the glow of health, beauty and life that was like a brilliant star shining from within her. Rhys let out a deep sigh and realized he’d been holding his breath until he saw her again, needing to assure himself that she hadn’t come to harm while out of his reach.

  She was waiting for something. Someone. After her experience with him last week, he wouldn’t be surprised if she’d arranged for a ride home. It was a precaution he could wish she’d taken long before now.

  Amy glanced over her shoulder. She had a strong case of the prickles dancing along the back of her neck, that sensation of being watched—and a damn good idea who was causing it.

  “That’s it,” she muttered to herself. “Time to nip this thing in the bud once and for all.” Moving purposefully toward the shadows, she stepped out of the light and into the dark row of trees and shrubs lining the side of the hospital.

  “Shit.” Rhys looked surprised to see her coming right for him.

  She stopped a foot away from the bushes, perched her hands on her hips and stared into the darkness. “I know you’re in there and I know you’ve been following me. Get out here. Now.”

  Her breath caught when he stepped forward into the subtle lamplight. She hadn’t actually expected him to listen to her, hadn’t expected to see him again.

  There was something about this man that turned her into a human tuning fork, made her whole body vibrate. Around him she felt alive, more alive than she’d felt in a very long time. She felt energized, impuls
ive…sexual. It was heady and scary and she was so out of her league.

  “What do you think you’re doing?”

  “You weren’t supposed to know I was here,” he answered sheepishly.

  “Obviously, or you wouldn’t be hiding in the shadows like some kind of nasty stalker.” He flinched and Amy wished she could take her words back. Whatever the man’s motives for tailing her, she didn’t think it was so he could hurt her, since he’d had plenty of opportunity to do just that and hadn’t. She didn’t feel scared.

  She did feel insulted.

  Because the real reason he was following her was so obvious, and yet he refused to speak to her. While she’d gotten wet at just the sight of those dangerous eyes, to him she was only unfinished business. And while she was hoping he would pull her close and kiss her again, to him she was just a job. It was frustrating to the extreme.

  “Why do you think you’re protecting me from?”

  Rhys said nothing. She should feel grateful, at least, that he wasn’t handing her a bunch of lies.

  “Oh, I get it.” Her eyes narrowed. “You think I’m going to go to the authorities.”

  “No. That’s not…” Rhys shook his head. “No. I just wanted to make sure you were safe.”

  “Safe,” she repeated. That was ten times worse.

  “You know what the word means, don’t you? It means resisting reckless impulses to dash into dark alleys in the dead of night, or walk home from work alone at two in the morning.”

  “Where do you get off telling me what—”

  “I just want you to be safe.”

  There was that word again. “You are such a liar,” she said. “As you can see, I am perfectly safe. I’ve even got someone coming to pick me up. So go indulge your hero complex with someone else.”

  It was just her luck. She finally met a man who made her ache in all the right places. Made her body hum in anticipation of one kiss. And sure enough, they were from completely different worlds.

  She was angry with herself for thinking of him all week. Angry with herself for dreaming about him every night. Angry with herself because it was painfully evident that he didn’t feel any of the things she was feeling.

  She was such a fool. He was a stranger. A dangerous stranger at that. It was past time to put a stop to this ridiculous infatuation. It probably wasn’t even him she was interested in, but the mystery of him. He represented something she’d been missing in her life. Excitement.

  She spun away and tried for a grand sweeping exit, but before she could get two good stomps in, Rhys grabbed her arm and dragged her back into the shadows.

  “Oh! Don’t you touch me.” Now her spine was against the rough bark of a tree. She kicked him in the shin, pulled her arm out of his grasp and elbowed him hard in the stomach. She tried to duck past him but he pushed her back against the tree.

  “Amy.” He let her go but wouldn’t let her pass, and otherwise showed no reaction to her attack, which just infuriated her even more. The least he could do was pretend that she had bruised a vital organ or two. “Listen—”

  “No. You listen.” She turned and poked him in the chest. Hard. “I’m no wimp and I can take care of myself.”

  “There’s more to being able to take care of yourself than pulling a few martial arts moves.” Rhys frowned. “You’ve got to know when to stay out of danger in the first place.”

  Amy sighed. Damn it, she hated that he was right. Her stiff shoulders softened a little and some of the righteous indignation that had been fueling her tirade bled out. “Look, I understand that what I did that night was stupid and rash. Of course, I could point out your own penchant for reckless conduct.” Rhys opened his mouth to protest. “But never mind that, we won’t go there right now.”

  “Good idea,” he said, his voice stiff with warning.

  “I may have been reckless, but I knew the risks when I stepped into that alley. It was my decision. I’ve been making them for a number of years now—you know, ever since I became an adult—so you are the last person I need pulling the macho caveman routine on me. Someone has already filled that position in my life,” she said, thinking of Gideon. “Got it?”

  Rhys remained silent. If he’d said something—anything—she could have held on to her anger. She could have argued and forced him to recognize that he had no right to try to manage her. Instead he said nothing, and she looked up into his eyes. Fell into them. Suddenly everything else drained away, leaving them both in frustrated silence.

  Amy dropped her gaze so he wouldn’t see the need she couldn’t hide. This man was a danger to her not because of his secrets, but because even though she knew there could never be anything between them, her body didn’t seem to care.

  “You have to leave,” she told him finally.

  “I can’t.” He said it as if he’d already tried to do just that.

  “Yeah. Well, too bad. It creeps me out to have you following me around everywhere. I’m not going to go down any more dark alleys in the middle of the night, I promise. So just go. Please.”

  Rhys cupped her chin and gently forced her to look up at him. She wanted to resist but his touch was insistent. “You’re so damn beautiful.” It wasn’t his words that had her heart thudding hard and fast against her chest but the husky sound of his voice. His fingers reached up to brush an errant lock of hair from her forehead, then trailed softly down her cheek. “I admit it,” he said. “It isn’t only your safety I’m concerned with. I’ve been thinking about you for days, imagining how good we’d be together. There’s something here that won’t be denied. You feel it too.”

  She shivered. Part of her was elated to hear she wasn’t the only one who’d gotten hot and bothered with inappropriate thoughts of the two of them. “It doesn’t matter. You’re not good for me, on too many levels to count. And I don’t need the kinds of complications you would bring to my life.”

  She placed her hand over his in an attempt to still the soft torment of his touch. “I’ve been going through some kind of personal crisis lately. All the things I’ve worked so hard to achieve feel wrong all of a sudden, and I have to try and figure out why that is. You hanging around like this is only making that harder to do. It wouldn’t be fair for me to use you.”

  “In what way do you think you’d be using me?” Desire flared in his gaze, an almost animal intensity blazing in the deep silvery pools.

  “Ever since I started my residency at the hospital, I’ve been feeling restless and unsettled. I’ve spent so many years studying and preparing for this that I think part of me is trying to rebel. Getting involved with you would just be my way of sowing some wild oats before I settle into my career and into life as a responsible adult.”

  His mouth tightened in a thin line. “So it would just be sex.”

  Had she hurt his feelings? She hesitated before nodding. “Just sex.”

  “Rough, sweaty, dirty sex I assume?”

  She bit her lip. “Uh-huh. Probably.”

  He reached up and dragged his thumb across her bottom lip where she’d bitten it, his gaze focused there. “I’m okay with that.”

  She drew in a sharp breath. The air crackled, a live, tangible thing that arched between them, through them, charging the space around them with an intense awareness of each other. Amy’s nipples tightened, sending steady stabs of desire all the way to her core where her pussy swelled and pulsed.

  His arms came around her and his mouth descended to claim hers. Mercilessly he kissed her, a battle with tongues and teeth, until she moaned and wrapped her arms around his neck.

  “God,” he groaned into her mouth, and pulled her closer as if needing the direct contact of her curves against him, “You’re so sweet.” He cupped her ass and ground his hips into her belly.

  “Rhys…I can’t,” she pleaded with him, needing him to be the one to pull away, because she didn’t think she could do it.

  “You make me so damn hot.” Rhys continued his assault as if he hadn’t heard, trailing siz
zling kisses down the length of her jaw, sliding his palm down her thigh to grip her leg, raising it to hang over his hip.

  Her back scraped the bark of the tree, but she didn’t care. Not as long as his massive body was pressed up against the front of her.

  She craned her neck to the side as he pushed her jacket off one shoulder and tugged her blouse out of the way as well. When his lips pressed to the sensitive hollow of her collarbone, she groaned. Her fingers curled over his broad shoulders and she instinctively lifted her other leg off the ground until her weight was balanced by the tree trunk and his body.

  He shifted and with one hand under her ass, positioned himself. She loved the feel of his hips cradled between her thighs and his hard cock pushing at her entrance. If not for the layers of denim between them, she’d be impaled on him already.

  “Open your blouse.” His words came out as a guttural growl.

  Her eyes widened. Here? She glanced to the side. A car had driven up the lane and there were a few people milling about under the streetlamps, but at least the busier Emergency entrance was at the opposite end of the building.

  Her fingers were moving before she could stop and think about it, pulling at the jeweled buttons until her shirt gaped open to her belly.

  He curled his hand around her neck. Amy felt the pressure of his grip. It was solid but soft and somehow reassuring. Just for a moment. Then he was dragging his palm down, over her chest and between her breasts. His mouth followed. Open and wet, tracing a path of fire over her skin.

  She tightened her thighs around his waist and rocked her pussy against him as he slipped his hand into the demi cup of her lace bra and tweaked her nipple between his rough, calloused fingers. She shivered and groaned, head thrown back so that the tree bark pulled at her hair.

  Rhys kissed all the way down her neck. He stabbed his tongue into the hollow of her throat, and then closed his teeth on the delicate tendon of her collarbone.

  So many sensations. His hot breath raising goose bumps on her sweaty skin. His tongue making her shudder and quake in his arms. His teeth sending delicious spikes of pleasure-pain to her pussy.